Unacceptable

Paragon

Paragon

Interstellar traveler
I find the price difference for a PowerMac bought in US and one in Denmark unacceptable. If I buy a PowerMac 800 MHz and a 17" FP I have to pay almost $3500 compared to the US price which is around $2400. Now I know there is sales tax and all but I mean...46% more for a mac just because I live in Denmark. No wonder mac's aren't that big in europe. Why am I not able to order a mac through the US macstore??

Please Apple...make the prices more even. :mad:
 
Agreed, but well, it's never gonna happen.

The fact is, Europe, and other territories, are always much worse off than our fellow Apple fans in the US. PeeCee manufacturers can often equliase prices, but it appears Apple can / will not. It's been like ever since I can remember with Apple, and I guess always will. This is partly why the Mac will never be as big in Europe as the US.

We discussed this a while back in this very forum with specific reference to the prices of the new iMacs here in the UK versus the US.

But all that happened was we Europeans were told to stop being "socialists" and get our local taxes down.

:rolleyes:
 
benpoole: I realise that Apple will not lower their prices in Europe, but that's not really my main concern, although I still think it's wrong. I was also wondering why I'm unable to order a mac through their website, when I can order a book through for example Amazon and only pay extra for the shipping charges. At the very least they should offer the same rebates as in US...in Denmark I cannot get the screensaver discount on $200.
 
I have compared German Apple prices to those in the US. Yes - all models are far more expensive (by about $300 - $500).

Why?

Well - here's the REASON: In Germany as well as many european nations, companies are required to offer 3-Year Warranties and Support!!!! That's two years more than Apple gives in the US!! Buy the Apple Care set to extend warranty to 3 years and you'll see that you pay just about the difference between German and US prices. Sure, even with this built-in 3 year warrante you're still effectively going to pay about $100 more. (But for a great Mac - isn't that worth sacrificing? ;-))

- pbmac
matthias
 
Well, you can't order a Mac from the US Apple Store because of the way Apple sell their products. Macs and associated software are localised, so that the bundle of software one gets with a new iMac in the US is quite different from that offered in the UK package, not to mention other issues such as voltage, power leads used, guarantees, and so on.

I remember back in the early 90s that a lot of UK Apple stores (not official resellers) offered "grey" imports, i.e. Macs sourced from the US for the domestic market. They had US versions of System 7 on them, together with 110 voltage and so on. In addition, warranties and the like were not valid. Not an ideal way to buy a Mac.

But I appreciate your frustration -- I feel it too!
 
Oh - and another:

Paragon:

When you buy an Amazon book in Denmark, it gets sent out from the Denmark subsidiary (even if it's an english book). However, if you want to buy a Mac from the online US Apple store, they will have to send it from the US = HIGH $$$$$$ EXPORT and IMPORT costs (imposed by the US and Denmark/Europe)!!!!! I bought a board game through an online US retailer and had it shipped to me (to germany). Although the game itself only cost $200 (yeah, expensive, but it's a finance boardgame to lean basics of finance) IMPORT and EXPORT came to over $100!!! That's over 50% more!!!!!

That's the effect of IMPORT and EXPORT restrictions.

-pbmac
me
 
First of all, pbmac: maybe in Germany you have a three year warranty but not in Denmark. Here you have a one year warranty as in US. Also I'm not talking about $300-$500 difference but $1100! Also, you are mistaken about the amazon book selling. When I ordered it came directly from the US and not a subsidiary, how do I know this. Well I pay a toll for the books when they enter Denmark...also it takes like 5 weeks to get here.

This I will be willing to pay since it can never amount to $1100 extra.

benpoole: I wish they had kept that idea, and as far as I know it's not a problem about the voltage since the mac have a switch where you can set it to 220V instead of 110V. The issue about localization is non-existing since we got OS X. And I would be more than willing to accept an english operating system, I already have that now.

It's just frustration seeing that a lot of companies offer goods online with the ability to ship to another country.
 
Guys I dont know why you are arguing for 1100 USD.

I wanted to buy a powerbook back in August the price in Greece where i live was: 5714 USD whilst the same specifications one in US was 3500!!!

Well what do you think now!!!

I think the price difference is f***k stupid.

That is of course in Greece we have a reseller for Apple products (Rainbow Hellas)

IE if i wanted to get the upgrade from MACOS X to X.1, i could not, because simply the reseller would tell me you havent bought your PB from us.......

Well thats why in Greece there is such a little number of Mac users.

At the end i asked my cousin who lives in US to buy me one there and bring it over to Greece. In US i got external CD-R for free,carry case free, extra mem free. In Greece i would get f****K all free.

Sorry about the language but it really annoys me the way the Greek reseller does his buisness.
 
Paragon i agree you that we are being over charged. I live in Ireland, if i try to buy the cheapest new iMac from the "irish" apple store without tax it cost 1749 euro, which is 1,593.92 USD.
if you go to the US apple store the same product is 1399 USD....a difference of nearly 200 USD.
So when you take taxes out of the equation a European Mac is still more expensive than a US Mac.
i think it has more to do with capitalism than socialism :)
 
testuser: please don't call our country a socialist country...obviously you have no idea of what you are talking about, we are and have never been a socialist country. We have been a democracy long before there was anything called the US.

As for your remark about prices, well they are true to some extent but we don't pay 46% more for computer electronics. You can buy a peecee over here for the same price as in the US, but not a mac.

As gigi says, if you take away the tax and leave only the product there still is a big difference in the price for a mac. As I stated earlier I have bought books in the US which get taxed when they enter the country. Now this tax is higher here than in the US, but as much as $1100.

Now I have finished my ranting. :p
 
The situation is similar in the US. Apple is very honest (naive?) about charging sales tax. Many mail-order firms only charge sales tax if they are forced to. Therefore, it is usually easy to find a retailer located in another state willing to sell to you without charging sales tax. Near San Francisco that tax is about 8%. Imagine, on a G4 tower and cinema display costing about $5,000 that is a $400 penalty for ordering from Apple. I suspect that in the case of the EU there are shippers in the US willing to help you avoid local taxes which makes for a huge price difference (though maybe not all of it).
 
gigi brings up an interesting point because I believe taxes are out of the equation in Ireland. I believe that the Apple store trades out of the Shannon duty free zone which

Ireland also has the Shannon Airport Customs Free Zone. Any foreign or domestic company may apply for a license to conduct trading operations in the zone, provided its operations in some way contribute to the development or use of Shannon Airport. Companies granted permission to operate in the Shannon Airport Customs Free Zone are taxed at a rate of 10% through December, 2005.
Click to expand...

When I purchase my Mac directly from Apple it was shipped from Shannon. This means that the price increase on Macs in Ireland is due to market pressures and not socialist measures.

R.
 
Testuser,
how about some research before saying something like that?
Europe does not equal socialism!

Prices for Macs in Europe are just about the same everywhere.
And this is true now more than ever, since most european countries use the same currency, which incidentally is called EURO, not EURO-DOLLAR as americans call it!!!

Prices here are too hight. Full stop.
 
Hmm... I'm very pro EU, although Switzerland isn't part of it (yet). But our prices seem to be much more reasonable than, say, Germany's. Compare:

iMac SuperDrive:
CH: 2249 EUR
DE: 2666 EUR

Both include taxes. Maybe it's better *not* to be part of something, sometimes... *sigh*

US price is 1728 EUR *without* taxes.
 
Socialist Europe (as the Americans have been educated to believe) launch a preemptive strike against the states. 12 missles launched

Facist America (as we're led to believe) retaliates by firing 12'000 missles but they all miss and hit, Russia, China and Japan. China strikes back but the missles fall short and Wales, UK is wiped off the face of the planet.

A few Welsh terrorists located in Bethnal Green, London decide to make suicide runs for the far east, but get stuck in The Dukes Head and 'sing-away' the English scum.

Switzerland stays neutral (buts accepts a few backhanders to help fund its ??... whatever it needs all that gold for) (oh a Fryke i'm all for Switzerlands position, if I had my way I'd pull out of the EU. I'm all for open borders and trade, but taking orders from Belgian Facists? Not my thing)

As the world tears itself apart, French Canadians take it upon themselves to take over the East and erect a huge brick wall to separate the two sides. But Quebec stays a West Canada City....

Haven't we seen something like this before?

Now I'll just sit back and enjoy...... :)
 
By date, there are actually no socialistic governments in West Europe.
Denmark is definitly not a socialist country. Norway isn't, either, even though we pay 24% sales/import tax, and we have a much higher tax level on absolutely everything. USA is a republic, and there are clear differences between the US government and any European government. The US economy system is based on losers and winners. "If you aren't a successful person, it's your own fault". There are rich people, middle-class people, lower-class people and poor people. There are more rich people in the US than in Europe, and as a result of that there are of course more poor people, too. That's a matter of fact. In our modern capitalism based regime, money is practically everything. In USA it's even worse. If you don't have money, your children are sent to the chapest, worse school and get much poorer education than they would get if you were rich. If you get cancer, and you don't have money, you're dead.

Capitalism is a sign of limited human intelligence factor. Capitalism has come to stay.
 
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